Invest NI has promoted 876 new jobs in the two super council areas of Newry, Mourne and Down and North Down and Ards.
Assistance from Invest Northern Ireland led to an increase in jobs and investment in the new Newry, Mourne and Down area in 2013/14.
End of year results show 576 new jobs were promoted by Invest NI during the year, an increase of 111 per cent on the previous 12 month period. The new employment opportunities are resulting from a 16 per cent increase in offers to companies, a 27 per cent rise in assistance provided and a 49 per cent growth in total investment.
Invest NI’s successful Jobs Fund promoted 212 new jobs, a 72 per cent rise on the year before. Invest NI support also contributed to company investment in research and development worth £3 million and representing a 27 per cent increase on 2012/13.
Mark Bleakney, Invest NI’s Southern Regional Manager, said: “All the indicators suggest that business confidence in the Newry, Mourne and Down council area is strengthening and more companies are now seeking to position themselves to benefit as economic recovery gathers momentum.
“Invest NI initiatives such as the Jobs Fund and the support for R&D projects have been encouraging companies to bring forward activities that will enable them to compete more effectively and successfully, particularly in markets outside Northern Ireland.”
Invest NI has put in place processes to enable accurate reporting of the actual number of jobs created as a direct result of the projects which it has assisted. In doing so, Invest NI is the first development agency in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland to report in this way across all its job support initiatives.
He added: “We now have the ability to analyse all offers of financial support which were ‘live’ at the beginning of our Corporate Plan period (2011-12) and extracted job creation against these offers. This shows that 2,199 new jobs have been created in total in Newry, Mourne and Down over the last three years,”
And in the North Down and Ards area, 300 new jobs in the new North Down and Ards super council area were created in in 2013/14, an increase of 70 per cent on the previous year.
End of year results from Invest NI show that 40 per cent of these new jobs came through the Regional Start Initiative which assists locally-owned business start ups. The number of jobs promoted through the Regional Start Initiative reflects a strengthening of entrepreneurial activity in the new council area.
As well as the growth in enterprise, two other measures – research and development (R&D) projects and investment in skills and development – indicate growing business confidence throughout the area. Investment by companies in R&D rose by 342 per cent and in skills development by 553 per cent.
Mark Bleakney, Invest NI’s Southern Regional Manager explained: “All the indicators suggest that businesses are now more confident and ready to work closely with Invest NI on projects that increase their competitiveness and are offering greater employment opportunities.
“Another important measure of the state of the local economy is the number of new business starts, which suggests a sharp rise in entrepreneurialism as local people are becoming more optimistic and confident about faster economic progress after a period of deep recession.”
Invest NI has put in place processes to enable accurate reporting of the actual number of jobs created as a direct result of the projects which it has assisted. In doing so, Invest NI is the first development agency in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland to report in this way across all its job support initiatives.
Mark Bleakney added: “We now have the ability to analyse all offers of financial support which were ‘live’ at the beginning of our Corporate Plan period (2011-12) and extracted job creation against these offers. This shows that 547 new jobs have been created in total in North Down and Ards in the last three years.”
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